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^IX 



ADDRESS 

BY 

SENATOR HENRY W. HILL 

In accepting the Bronze Bust 
^^La France^'''' by the Sculptor 
Rodin, the gift of the people 
of France to the New York and 
Vermont Lake Champlain Ter- 
centenary Commissions at the 
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New 
York City, on May 1, 1912 

Ambassador Jusserand, Monsieur Gabriel Hanotaux, and 
other Members of the Delegation from France, and 
Gentlemen of the New York and Vermont Tercen- 
tenary Commissions, and of the New York Cham- 
plain Association: 

This is a fitting postlude to the Bi-State programme of 
International Tercentenary exercises in commemoration of 
the discovery of one of the most charming lakes in America 
by the brave and highminded Samuel Champlain, who first 
proclaimed Christianity among the aborigines of that Valley 
in the declaration that "the salvation of one soul is of more 
value than the conquest of an enemy." The light of civili- 
zation thus first gleaming through the darkness of savagery 
is to be symbolized in a memorial lighthouse erected by the 
States of New York and Vermont on property of the United 



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States Government at Crown Point Forts, that location 
being for 150 years one of the strategic points of the French 
possessions in America, and the life work of the discoverer 
is to be further perpetuated by an heroic size statue 
by the New York sculptor, Charles Augustus Heber, 
at Plattsburgh. The people of the two States in grate- 
ful appreciation of the life, services and high moral 
character of the discoverer of the lake which bears his 
name, and who was the first white man to set foot on the 
soil of New York and Vermont, eleven years before the 
Pilgrims entered Plymouth Bay, and two months before 
Henry Hudson discovered the river bearing his name, 
flowing into this beautiful harbor of New York, conceived 
and carried forward the Champlain Tercentenary Celebra- 
tion of 1909, which has awakened deep interest in the 
principles and common purposes of two Republics, and 
done much to strengthen the friendship between them, 
that prompted France to shed across the seas its kindly and 
beneficent influence upon this Republic in its infancy. In 
the conduct of that Tercentenary now considered as one of 
the most noted American commemorative celebrations, the 
Republic of France represented by its gifted and eloquent 
patriot and scholar. Ambassador Jusserand, the Kingdom 
of Great Britain by its distinguished Ambassador Right 
Honorable James Bryce, the Dominion of Canada by its 
noted Postmaster General Lemieux, the Province of Quebec 
by its gifted Premier Sir Lomer Gouin, the Empire of 
Japan by its Vice-Admiral, Uriu, and the United States by 
its President and Secretary of War, and some members of 
its Senate and House of Representatives, and representa- 
tives of the Army and Navy, participated with the States 
of New York and Vermont, and thus gave it an Interna- 
tional character, worthy the important events which it was 
designed to commemorate. 

You would be likely to form a more adequate conception 
of the magnitude of the Tercentenary Celebration, if you 
were to picture the Champlain Valley, one hundred miles 
in length, and twenty-five miles in width, with the lake, as 

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stated by Dr. Cady, "a prismed pendant dropped from out 
the skies," interspersed with beautiful islands, and but- 
tressed by prominent headlands, as an arena with over- 
towering mountains on either side, forming a background 
of superb natural beauty and suggesting ideals of the true 
and sublime in nature and a sky of Italian beauty vaulting 
a lake of crystal waters, where five great scenes were 
presented to thronging thousands of interested spectators — 
one at Crown Point which projects into the lake so far as 
nearly to sever it into two sections, where was erected at 
vast expenditure of money, in 1731, by the French, Fort 
Frederic, in honor of the French Secretary of Foreign 
Affairs, Frederic Maurepas, under the supervision of the 
Marquis de Beauharnois, Governor-General of Canada, and 
later by the British under Lord Amherst, the fort now 
forming a grand ruin; another scene twenty miles distant, 
on the following day, at Ticonderoga, "the gateway of the 
Nation," where was built Fort Carillon, in 1755, around 
which struggled the flower of contending armies of three 
sovereign nations for its control ; another scene, sixty miles 
distant, at Plattsburgh Barracks, on a plateau overlooking 
"V'alcour Island, where occurred one of the chief naval 
engagements of the Revolution, the report of which elec- 
trified the Continental Congress, and also overlooking 
Plattsburgh Bay, where occurred the decisive naval engage- 
ment of the War of 181 2, in which the American Fleet 
under Macdonough defeated and routed the British Fleet 
under Downie, and still another scene twenty-five miles 
distant, on the following day, in the City of Burlington, 
under the shadow of the University which had been burned 
during the War of 181 2, and whose corner-stone was re- 
laid by Marquis de Lafayette in 1825, and where stands a 
statue erected to his memory, on a sloping hillside over- 
looking Burlington Bay, that beautiful Baiae of our inland 
sea, and the clear waters of the historic lake walled in on 
the west by the rugged and occasionally snow-capped peaks 
of the Adirondacks, and the fifth scene, forty-five miles 
distant, on the following day, at beautiful Isle La Motte, 



which was the first land in the Champlain Valley visited by 
Samuel Champlain, which had been for two centuries or 
more the common meeting place of warring Indian tribes, 
and which became the rendezvous of missionaries, and 
where in 1666, was built Fort Ste. Anne, and where High 
Mass was first celebrated in the State of Vermont, and 
where was stationed the Carignan-Salieres Regiment of 
600 French veterans. At each of these scenes were Indian 
pageants, moved from place to place on a floating island, 
participated in by 150 descendants of the native aboriginal 
tribes that occupied the Champlain Valley, and enlivened 
by military and naval forces, with formal addresses, 
speeches and poems, by the President of the United States 
and the distinguished diplomats, orators and poets in attend- 
ance, presenting anew the story and thrilling events that 
have transpired in the Champlain Valley since its discovery 
three centuries ago. This will afford some conception of 
the great drama of the Champlain Tercentenary Celebra- 
tion, in which Samuel Champlain, the navigator, colonizer 
and apostle of civilization in that valley, Chevalier sans 
peur et sans reproche, was the hero and central figure. 

On this occasion we are profoundly touched at the gen- 
erosity and friendship of President Fallieres and the 
French people, exhibited in the presentation by the distin- 
guished delegation who have come from France, of this 
allegorical bust "La France," by Auguste Rodin, and we 
gratefully accept the same in the name of the New York 
and Vermont Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissions, 
in behalf of the people of the two States, as well as of the 
people of the United States, and through you, Monsieur 
Hanotaux, and other members of your delegation from 
France, we tender to President Fallieres and the people of 
France, who have so generously contributed to the purchase 
and presentation of this beautiful bust, our grateful appre- 
ciation and acknowledgments. 

This work of art, coming as a voluntary expression of 
the good will and cordial feelings of the French people for 



Americans who have shown some appreciation of the 
discoveries and services for humanity of one of the most 
noted French explorers among many, who were first to 
open up the interior of this continent to the onward march 
of civilization^ is an imperishable testimonial of that abiding 
friendship existing between the peoples of the two foremost 
Republics in the world, which have done so much for the 
liberty, equality and fraternity of mankind. When we 
reflect upon the evolution of French institutions from 
Charlemagne to Fallieres, the progress of the French people 
in the arts and sciences within the last century, and the 
contributions that they have made to these, and to literature 
and to art, as well as to the world's diplomacy and intel- 
lectual development, we do not wonder that the Republic 
across the sea, which you represent, gentlemen, is aglow 
with vitality and energized by new and expanding ideas, 
and is forging forward as one of the most progressive and 
powerful nations in the world. Had not the French people 
been open to new ideas, possibly they would not have 
responded to the appeals of Franklin and our other patriots 
during the Revolution, and the Marquis de Lafayette, 
Comte de Rochambeau, with his 6,000 soldiers, Comte de 
Grasse, with his fleet, and others, would not have crossed 
the Atlantic to aid the Colonies in their struggle for 
independence. 

Lafayette and others carried back with them something 
of the inspiration which they had derived from their 
experience in this country and from their contact with 
General Washington and other patriots, and their reports 
did something to arouse the National Assembly of France, 
and the princes and potentates of European nations to 
a realization of the evidences of the Republican move- 
ment in America as well as in Europe, which culminated 
in making most of the nations of western Europe more 
democratic and responsive to popular liberties. On the 
establishment of a Republican form of government in 
France in 1848, the President of the United States 



transmitted a message to Congress, in which he said : "We 
can never forget that France was our early friend in our 
eventful Revolution, and generously aided us in shaking off 
a foreign yoke and becoming a free and independent people. 
We have enjoyed the blessing of our system of well regu- 
lated self-government for nearly three-fourths of a century, 
and can properly appreciate its value. Our ardent and 
sincere congratulations are extended to the patriotic people 
of France upon their noble and thus far successful efforts 
to found for their future government liberal institutions 
similar to our own. It is not doubtful that under the 
benign influence of free institutions the enlightened states- 
men of Republican France will find it to be for her true 
interests and permanent glory to cultivate with the United 
States the most liberal principles of international inter- 
course and commercial reciprocity, whereby the happiness 
and prosperity of both notions will be promoted." A fitting 
response to this was made by the National Assembly of 
France, and there have from that time forth existed cordial 
relations between the two sister Republics. These relations 
were emphasized in the presentation by the French people 
of the colossal statue "Liberty Enlightening the World," by 
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, and unveiled with elaborate 
ceremonies on Bedloe's Island in New York harbor, on 
October 28, 1886. When the Rodin allegorical bust "La 
France" is in its permanent home by the Champlain 
Memorial Light at the Crown Point Forts near the head 
of Lake Champlain, it will be on the highway of travel by 
water between New York harbor and Lake Champlain, 
through the enlarged and improved Champlain Canal 
nearing completion, and so be brought into communication 
with the Statue of Liberty, and will do something to restore 
the interest of travelers as well as of our French-American 
citizens, in the history of that region, for 150 years under 
control of the French Nation, and within a few miles of 
which at Ticonderoga, Montcalm and others achieved 
imperishable fame, and will be a further lasting- expression 
of the artistic temperament and proverbial generosity of 



the French people toward the people of this Nation, the 
genius of whose institutions has been more or less reflected 
in the evolution of French institutions during the last 
century. As an expression of one of your most renowned 
sculptors, it will awaken a deeper interest of the people in 
that valley in art, which has been ideally expressed in this 
allegorical bust "La France," in a way to symbolize the 
marvelous genius of the French people. 

The members of New York and Vermont Lake Cham- 
plain Tercentenary Commissions bid you, gentlemen, of 
the French delegation, a most cordial welcome to our 
shores, and tender to you their deep appreciation of the 
gift which you bring from your people. 



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